


Nice To Meet You

by 28sunflowers



Series: Journalists AU [1]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Co-workers, Journalist Harry, Journalist Louis, M/M, No Smut, Pining, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:47:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25689046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/28sunflowers/pseuds/28sunflowers
Summary: Louis has the biggest, most embarrassing, seventh grade like, crush on his journalist partner from the morning news. It’s a fact that he will make an idiot of himself and his infatuation will show immediately when they meet in person.Which is why Louis can’t be blamed for his terrible social skills when he walks into Harry in the conference room to discuss this morning’s show.
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Series: Journalists AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2016355
Comments: 19
Kudos: 126
Collections: Prompt 5.4: Board





	Nice To Meet You

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, everyone. 
> 
> I have to say, I tried for humor and landed on... Something. I don’t know what.  
> I hope you all like it anyways! 
> 
> PS: in my mind, Niall is the show's weather man. Just wanna leave that information out for you haha

Louis parks his car by the studio, humming along to the song on the radio. It’s too early for the studio to be full and the cloudy cold weather enhances the calmness around.

He looks around for the street crew car and lets out a sigh when he doesn’t see it in the parking lot. He’s been working here for almost a year now, and only a handful of times was the street crew still in the studio, but he can’t help it feeling anxious about running into them.

Louis likes the street crew. Mitch is quiet but nice, Sarah is eccentric in a nice way and Adam is a great conversationalist, always ready to show pictures of his children to anyone who will indulge him on the topic. Louis’ problem is Harry.

Sweet, wonderful Harry, who is always making incredibly bad jokes on live television. He is kind of infamous on the internet, Louis’ seen his clips going viral on Twitter and Instagram. It seems like nobody can be immune to Harry’s comic charm and radiant persona.

Louis has the biggest, most embarrassing, seventh grade like, crush on Harry. And he knows he can’t hide emotions from his face to save his life. One of the reasons he got the morning news host spot was his polite honesty and the fact he sympathizes so much with the situations, instead of delivering everything in a robotic like manner.

At first, he thought it was going to be a problem because good journalism is supposed to be impartial, but the broadcaster quickly reassured him it was fine. He just couldn’t mix his opinions with the news delivery, but people want to see a human they can relate to on TV. So for a few months of work, everything was going great.

Then the street journalist he worked with, Mark, made a terribly homophobic comment while showing traffic that Louis just couldn’t stand by.

He didn’t think the channel board would stand by him, but apparently there was a lot of commotion on the internet, so they did. That’s how, after a week of a different person in Mark’s place each day, Harry Styles became the new junior employee of the morning show.

Louis remembers delivering the news about the bad weather ruining a public school in a southern district and then giving the spot to Harry, who had a few minutes to show the destruction, interview a couple of staff and explain the bad financial situation that led to the school’s infrastructure not handling strong winds.

Harry started off by tripping on some of the rubble, blushing furiously and stuttering his next words. He completely charmed the staff he interviewed in under a minute. And if Louis wasn’t endeared enough, Harry talked about how the city wasn’t investing in public education in the area with the most adorable outraged frown he’s ever seen.

It was love at first journalistic story.

So sue Louis for not wanting to run into Harry anytime soon. But he knows, for a fact, he will make an idiot of himself and his infatuation will show immediately. He doesn’t want to risk flush bright red on live television whenever he has to speak with Harry after the encounter.

Louis walks inside the studio, greeting a few people as he goes straight to the conference room. There is still two hours until he’s on, but they always leave details out to sort and discuss in the morning, in case news changes overnight.

Since there are a few people around, Louis doesn’t pay any mind to the fact the lights in the room are on and the door is slightly opened. He walks in and goes straight to the stand where they keep warm tea and coffee for the employees.

“Good morning,” a deep cheery voice greets Louis, making him jump. His heart beats strongly against his chest as he drops the cup he was holding and turns towards the voice abruptly.

In the shock of the moment, his brain didn’t absorb whose voice it might be, but now he’s staring straight into Harry, in the flesh, for the first time.

The man is walking slowly towards Louis, holding a hand in front of him like he’d do with a spooked animal, eyes wide-eyes and apologetic. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you like that.”

Louis takes a deep breath and lets his body sag against the table behind him. He laughs softly, which makes the worry leave Harry’s features a little bit.

“It’s fine,” he reassures the younger boy even though he can still hear his heart beat loudly in his ears, “it wasn’t your fault. I was distracted.”

Harry standing near Louis awkwardly and Louis’ body acts before his brain can filter it. He hastily shoves a hand between Harry and himself, offering the grasp to the other boy.

“Nice to finally meet you.”

Harry looks down at the extended hand and takes a second to understand what’s happening before he shakes it, a smile forming on his lips. “Nice to meet you, Louis. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Only good things I hope?”

“The best, the street crew loves you.” Harry looks down at the floor, “let me help you with that.”

Harry drops down to take the plastic cup and throw it out, so Louis springs into action. He opens the cupboard under the table and takes a cloth to clean the mess he made.

He can hear other people coming into the room and Harry explaining what happened while he cleans and wishes the ground would swallow him up. What a great first impression he just made. Louis can feel his cheeks burning in embarrassment.

He keeps his back turned to everyone while he finds a bucket to dispose of the dirty rag in and takes a deep breath to recompose himself.

“Can we start, Lou?” Niall asks from his place on the table, so Louis turns around and nods.

“Yes, yes, of course. I’m sorry about that.”

A few people chuckle and his apologies are dismissed. He looks around and sees they left him the seat next to Harry, so he goes for it, trying not to look directly at the other man.

He clears his throat, “so, why’s the street crew not out today?”

“They are. I’m not. A substitute went in my place.” Harry explains, a bit cryptically. He turns from Louis to one of their bosses, so Louis follows his eye sight in hopes someone else will clarify the situation.

“Well, let’s start with that, then.” Lisa looks up at them seriously, “the board is thinking of extending the morning news in half an hour and incorporating more content. We thought it would be a good idea to have someone else on set with Louis, to make things more dynamic, and Harry was a clear first option.”

Louis can’t believe what he’s hearing. The room is silent, assimilating the information that was just given to them.

“Okay…” Louis prompts her to continue when no one else says anything.

“The next couple of weeks will be of Harry getting used to the studio, figuring out details, you two getting comfortable around each other. Does that sound okay with you, Louis?” She asks boldly.

Louis swallows nervously, hyper aware of the fact all the attention is on him again. He feels a point of annoyance at the fact she’s asking him publicly like this, pressuring him into a corner. He can’t say no like this. He wouldn’t say no, but this is rude.

He closes his eyes for a second and takes a deep breath. “That’s fine. I’m sure Harry and I will get along greatly.”

Lisa smiles patronizingly at him, and Louis hates it.

“That’s what I like to hear!” She claps her hands together. “Let’s start on today’s show, shall we?”

People instantly start talking around the table, making commentary and adjustments on the pieces Louis will present. Louis sits mostly quiet, giving his opinions when asked, digesting everything.

He notices Harry is awfully quiet as well, and he sympathizes with the man’s nerves and shyness. Morning meetings are normally a lot to take in, too much information being discussed at once so they don’t have to gather even earlier every day. Louis debates whether he should give some pointers to Harry or not, but decides against interfering. He doesn’t need to embarrass himself further today.

As soon as it’s done, Louis springs from his seat towards the journalists’ dressing room to get his hair fixed and put on a suit.

Him and Harry don’t really talk for the rest of the day. He can feel Harry’s eyes on him multiple times when he records, and he sneaks some glances at the other man, but Harry is concentrated in learning and socializing with everyone, from the image and sound staff to their stylist.

Now that there’s a distance between them and Louis accepts his fate of daily uneasy interactions, at least off camera, he can think of Harry more objectively.

Harry is beautiful. Louis knew that already, clearly. The camera doesn’t really hide his figure and the man is not shy on social media. But seeing him in person is really doing things to Louis. Louis knows that Harry’s pouty lips will be a reason for daydreaming already.

But beyond that, Harry really seems like a lovely person. He can see every single person in the studio falling in love with him as the morning progresses, and he can’t blame them. He’s clearly hardworking, gentle and funny. 

Louis wonders if he has any flaws. 

It’s gonna be hard for Louis to control his thoughts on live television with Harry around. He hopes the internet doesn’t tear him apart for his obvious crush. 

By the time the day is done, Louis feels like the work took double the energy it normally does. He just wants to go home and sleep off his emotional turmoil.

Harry’s still making rounds, so Louis slips out quietly, hoping Harry doesn’t begrudge him for it and that he’s willing to accept Louis’ terrible social skills.

The next day, when Louis parks his car, he’s ready to face Harry. He manages a polite smile after walking into their conference room and seeing the other man, and his blood pressure stays almost stable.

He is caught by surprise, though, when Harry offers him a cup of tea from a café Louis’ never heard of. It’s still hot and smells much better than the tea they have here.

“I hope you like it,” Harry fidgets nervously with the hem of his shirt after handing off the cup to Louis. He looks nervous and Louis’ heart aches a bit.

He tries offering the other man a comforting expression, “thank you Harry, that’s very sweet of you.”

Louis takes a sip and loves the tea. Either Harry is really good at reading people or he got lucky. Louis flushes slightly at the nice gesture, trying to hide his face by keeping the cup by his lips.

“I’m sorry,” Harry says suddenly, taking Louis aback.

“What for?” Louis chuckles confusedly.

“I didn’t know Lisa was going to spring that stuff on you yesterday, I thought she talked to you about it before,” Harry explains. “It wasn’t cool. It was clear you wanted to say ‘no’ but couldn’t in the moment.”

Louis can’t help but feel amused and charmed. Harry looks far more guilty than he should, considering he didn’t do anything wrong. Louis will definitely not be able to get a grip on his crush.

“I didn’t want to say ‘no’, Harry,” he laughs softly at the boy misunderstanding his reaction from yesterday, “obviously, I was surprised and I was angry that Lisa did that to me, but I don’t have a problem with you at all.”

Harry’s face brightens so quickly that Louis feels a bit dizzy with it. His mind is doing celebratory loops for being the reason behind Harry’s momentary happiness.

They’re both burst out of their bubble by Niall and James walking into the room, loudly discussing some sport.

“Thanks again,” Louis holds up the cup in a salute motion to Harry and gives him a soft smile before walking to the table and sitting down in his usual spot.

Louis is glad today went so much better than yesterday. He feels hopeful for a future of possible friendship with Harry and maybe less humiliation from him than he expects. He lets out a deep breath. It’s okay. He can do this.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!  
> Leave kudos/comments if you can ♥ 
> 
> Here's a [tumblr post](https://vintageumbroshirt.tumblr.com/post/625447773630873600/nice-to-meet-you-by-28sunflowers-harry) in case you wanna like/rb, and please check out the fest's other amazing works! Links bellow. 
> 
> This is part of a Wordplay prompt challenge for the prompt "board". To read the amazing fics that were written by the others on this prompt, [click here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/board), and to see all fics written as part of the challenge (including years 1-3), [click here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/wordplay_fic_challenge/works). You can also find the masterpost for this year’s challenge [here](https://wordplayfics.tumblr.com/post/622306139518926848/wordplay-2020-every-week-for-five-weeks-a-prompt).


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